From a quart of rich milk or cream take half a pint, and put it into a small saucepan, with a vanilla bean, and a stick of the best Ceylon cinnamon, broken in pieces. Cover the saucepan closely, and let it boil till the milk is highly flavoured with the vanilla and cinnamon. Then strain it, take out the vanilla bean, wipe it, and put it away, as it will do for the same purpose a second time. Mix the flavoured milk with the other pint and a half, and let it get quite cold. Beat very light the yolks only of twelve eggs, and stir them into the milk alternately with a quarter of a pound, or more, of powdered white sugar. Put this custard mixture into a tin pan, set it in a Dutch oven or something similar, pour round the pan some boiling water, enough to reach half-way up its sides, and bake the custard ten minutes. Instead of vanilla, you may flavour the custard by boiling, in the half pint of milk, a handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels, blanched and broken in half, and stirring into the custard when it has done baking, but is still hot, a wine glass of rose water. As rose water loses most of its taste by cooking, it is best, when practicable, to add it after the article is taken from the fire.
In the mean time let another mixture be prepared as follows. Sift half a pound of fine flour, cut up half a pound of fresh butter in a pint of rich milk, and set it on a stove or near the fire till the butter is soft but not melted. Then stir it well and take it off. Beat eight whole eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the milk and butter, in turn with the flour. Take care to have this batter very smooth, and quite free from lumps. Having beaten and stirred it thoroughly, put it in equal portions into deep pattypans with plain unscolloped sides, filling them but little more than half, so as to allow space for the cakes to rise in baking. The pattypans must be previously buttered. When the mixture is in, sprinkle powdered loaf-sugar over the top of each. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them about a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes. They must be well browned. When done, take them out, and open in the side of each (while quite hot) a slit or cut, large enough to admit a portion of the custard that has been made for them. Put in with a spoon as much of this custard as will amply fill the cavity or hollow in the middle of each cake. Then close the slit nicely, by pinching and smoothing it with your thumb and finger, and set the cakes to cool. They should be eaten fresh. In summer they will not keep till next day unless they are set on ice. If properly made, they will be found delicious.
For this cake you must prepare, the day before, three pounds of sifted flour, two pounds of powdered white sugar, four nutmegs, and a quarter of an ounce of mace powdered fine; two pounds of stoned raisins, two pounds of currants, picked, washed, and dried (or you may substitute for the currants two additional pounds of raisins), and half a pound of citron cut large. The raisins, currants, and citron must be spread on a large dish, and dredged thickly over with flour, which must be mixed well among them with your hands, so as to coat them all completely. This is to prevent their sinking in a clod to the bottom while the cake is baking, and should always be done with whatever fruit is used in either cakes or puddings. Put the spice into half a pint of white wine, cover it, and let it infuse all night. Next morning, have ready two pounds of the best fresh butter, cut small; six eggs well beaten; a pint of warm new milk; and half a pint of fresh strong yeast, procured, if possible, from a brewer or baker. Rub half the butter into the flour, adding half the sugar; wet it with the milk, and add half of the eggs, and the wine, and the yeast. Stir and mix it thoroughly. Then cover it and set it to rise. It should be perfectly light by evening. Then add the remainder of the butter and the sugar, and the rest of the egg. Mix it well, and set it again to rise till early next morning. Then add gradually the fruit, setting it again to rise for two or three hours. When it is perfectly light for the last time, butter a large deep pan, and put in the mixture. The oven must first be made very hot, and then allowed to cool down so as to bake rather slowly. If too hot, it will scorch and crust the cake on the outside, so as to prevent the heat from penetrating any farther, and the inside will then be soddened and heavy. A common-sized loaf-cake may remain in the oven from three to four hours.
Rub a pound of fresh butter (cut up) into three pounds of sifted flour; adding, by degrees, a pound of fine brown sugar, half an ounce of cloves ground or powdered, and sufficient West India molasses to wet the whole into a stiff dough, mixing in at the last a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus dissolved in tepid water. Roll the dough out into a sheet of paste, and cut out the cakes with a tin stamp, or with the edge of a tumbler. Put them in buttered pans, and bake them a quarter of an hour or more. They will continue good a long time, if kept dry, and are excellent to take to sea.
Beat to a cream half a pound of fresh butter cut up in a deep pan, among half a pound of brown sugar, and at the beginning set near the fire to soften it a little, but not to melt it. Add two large table-spoonfuls of ginger, a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cloves. Then stir into it, alternately, a pint of West India molasses, and three pints of sifted flour, and six well-beaten eggs. Lastly, dissolve a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in a pint of sour milk, and stir it, while foaming, into the mixture. Put it immediately into shallow square tin pans, well buttered, and place it in an oven not too hot, or it will burn the outside, and leave the inside raw and heavy. This cake requires long beating, and much baking.
Sift into a pan five large tea-cupsful of flour, and rub into it one tea-cup of fresh butter; add two cups of powdered white sugar, and a handful or two of carraway seeds; wet it with an egg well beaten, and a little rose-water. Add, at the last, a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus dissolved in a very little lukewarm water. Knead the whole well. Roll it out into a sheet. Cut it into cakes with a stamp or a tumbler edge; put them into a buttered pan, and bake them about fifteen minutes. Instead of carraway seeds, you may use currants, picked, washed, and dried.
Sift a pint and a half of yellow Indian meal, and mix it with half a pint wheat flour. Beat two eggs very light, and then stir them gradually into the meal, in turn with almost a quart of sour milk. If you have no sour milk from the preceding day, you can turn some sweet milk sour by setting it in the sun. Lastly, dissolve a tea-spoonful of sal-aratus, or a very small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in a little of the sour milk reserved for the purpose. The batter must be as thick as that for a pound-cake. More Indian meal may be necessary. Stir it at the last into the mixture, which, while foaming, must be put into buttered cups, or little tin pans, and set immediately into an oven, brisk but not too hot. When well baked, turn out the cakes, and send them warm to the breakfast-table. Eat them with butter.
Mix a quart of bran with a handful of wheat flour, and a level tea-spoonful of salt. Pour in sufficient milk-warm water to make a thick batter. Add two table-spoonfuls of brewer's yeast, or three, if home-made; and stir it very hard. Cover it, and set it by the fire to rise. Half an hour before you begin to bake, you may add a salt-spoonful of soda, melted in a little warm water. Bake it like buckwheat cakes, on a griddle.
Pare, core, and slice thin, a dozen or more fine juicy pippins, or bell-flowers, strewing among them some bits of the yellow rind of a large lemon that has been pared very thin, and squeezing over them the juice of the lemon. Or substitute a tea-spoonful of essence of lemon. Cover the bottom of a large deep dish with a thick layer of the sliced apples. Strew it thickly with brown sugar Then scatter on a few very small bits of the best fresh butter. Next strew over it a thin layer of grated bread-crumbs. Afterwards another thick layer of apple, followed by sugar, butter, and bread-crumbs as before. Continue this till you get the dish full, finishing with a thin layer of crumbs. Put the dish into a moderate oven, and bake the pudding well, ascertaining that the apples are thoroughly done and as soft as marmalade. Send it to table either hot or cold, and eat it with cream-sauce, or with butter, sugar, and nutmeg, stirred to a cream. This pudding is in some places called by the homely names of Brown Betty, or Pan Dowdy. It will require far less baking, if the apples are previously stewed soft, and afterwards mixed with the sugar and lemon. Then put it into the dish, in layers, interspersed (as above) with bits of butter, and layers of grated crumbs. It will be much improved by the addition of a grated nutmeg, mixed with the apples.
Take fine juicy apples, sufficient when stewed to fill two soup plates. Pare, core, and slice them. Add a lump of butter, about the size of a walnut, and the grated peel of a lemon; and stew them with as little water as can possibly keep them from burning. They must be stewed till they are quite soft all through, but not broken. Then mash them well with the back of a spoon, and make them very sweet with fine brown sugar. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, or add a wine-glass of rose-water. When the apple is quite cold, add a grated nutmeg, a table-spoonful of brandy, and a table-spoonful of cream, mixed with a table-spoonful of finely-grated bread crumbs, and the well-beaten yolk of an egg. Stir the whole very hard. Cover the bottom and sides of two soup plates with thin puff-paste, and put a thick paste round the edges, notching it handsomely. Then fill up with the mixture, and bake it about half an hour. Or you may bake it in cups, without any paste. If for cups, prepare double the above quantity of apple and other ingredients.
Peach custards may be made in a similar manner, of fine ripe free-stone peaches, pared, stoned, quartered, and stewed without any water. Omit the lemon, and add two eggs.
Take a quart of stewed pumpkin. Put it into a sieve, and press and strain it as dry as possible. Then set it away to get cold. Beat eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the pumpkin, a little at a time, in turn with a quart of rich cream and a pound of sugar. Mix together a quarter of an ounce of powdered mace, two powdered nutmegs, and a table-spoonful of ground ginger, and stir them into the other ingredients. When all is mixed, stir the whole very hard. Cover the bottom of your pie-dishes with a thin paste, and fill them nearly to the top with the mixture. Cut out narrow stripes of paste with your jagging-iron, and lay them across the tops of your pies. Bake them from an hour to an hour and a quarter. Send them to table cool. They are best the day they are baked. Some persons prefer them without any paste beneath, the dishes being filled entirely with the mixture; and if they have broad edges, a border of thick puff-paste may be laid along the edge, and handsomely notched. We think this the best way; as paste that is baked under any mixture that has milk and eggs in it, is liable, in consequence of the moisture, to become clammy and heavy, and is therefore unwholesome.
Cut up and skin a large ripe cocoa-nut, and grate it fine. Then put the grated cocoa-nut into a clean cloth, and squeeze and press it till all the moisture is taken out. Spread it on a broad tin pan, and stand it up to dry, either in the sun or before the fire, stirring it up occasionally with your hands. When quite dry weigh a pound of it. Beat very light sixteen eggs (omitting the whites of four) and then beat into them, gradually, a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and a wine glass of rose-water. Then give the whole a hard stirring. Put the mixture into deep dishes, and lay puff-paste round their edges handsomely notched. Bake them about half an hour. Send them to table cold with white sugar grated over the top.
Cut up half a pound of fresh butter in a pint of milk, and warm it a little, so as to soften but not melt the butter. Add, gradually, half a pound of powdered white sugar, in turn with three well-beaten eggs, and a pound of sifted flour, finishing with half a jill of strong fresh yeast. Set the mixture in a warm place to rise. It will most probably be five hours before it is light enough to bake, and it should therefore be made in the forenoon. When it has risen high, and the top is covered with bubbles, butter some cups, and bake it in them about twenty minutes. When done, turn the cakes out on large plates; send them to table hot, and split and butter them. To open these cakes, pull them apart with your fingers.
Gelatine is used as a substitute for calves feet in making jelly. It is prepared in light yellowish sheets, and can be purchased at the druggists'. The chief advantage in gelatine is, that by keeping it in the house, you can always have it ready for use, and the jelly made with it may be commenced and finished the same day: while, if you use calves' feet, they must be boiled the day before. Also, you may chance to live in a place where calves' feet cannot at all times be procured, and then a box of gelatine, always at hand, may be found very convenient. The cost is about the same, whether the jelly is made of calves' feet or of gelatine. That of calves' feet will generally be the firmest, and will keep two or three days in a cold place or when set on ice; that of gelatine, if not used on the day that it is made, will sometimes melt and become liquid again. Its greatest recommendations are convenience and expedition. The following receipt for gelatine jelly will be found a very good one, if exactly followed.
Soak two ounces of gelatine, for twenty-five minutes, in as much cold water as will cover it. Then take it out, lay it in another vessel, pour on it two quarts of boiling water, and let it thoroughly dissolve. Afterwards set it to cool. Having rolled them under your hand on a table, pare off very thin the yellow rind of four lemons, and cut it into small bits. Break up, into little pieces, two large sticks of the best cinnamon (that of Ceylon is far preferable to any other) and a pound of the best double refined loaf-sugar. Mix together in a large bowl, the sugar, the lemon-rind, and the cinnamon; adding the juice of the lemons, the beaten white of an egg, and a pint of Malaga or any other good white wine. Add to these ingredients the dissolved gelatine, when it is cool but not yet cold. Mix the whole very well, put it into a porcelain kettle, or a very clean bell-metal one, and boil it fifteen minutes. Then pour it warm into a white flannel jelly-bag, and let it drip into a large glass bowl. On no account squeeze or press the bag, or the jelly will be dull and cloudy. After it has congealed in the bowl, set it on ice; but the sooner it goes to table the better. A warm damp day is unfavourable for making any sort of jelly.
You may flavour it with four or five oranges instead of lemons.
If you are averse to using wine in the jelly, substitute a pound of the best raisins, stemmed (but not seeded or stoned) and boiled whole with the other ingredients.
This is the biscuit glacé so popular in France. Take some pieces of broken loaf-sugar, and rub off on them the yellow rind of four lemons, or oranges. Then pulverize the sugar, and mix it with half a pound of loaf-sugar already powdered, and moistened with the juice of the lemons. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of cream, in turn with the sugar and lemon. Have ready some stale Naples biscuit or square sponge cakes grated very fine, and stir them gradually into the mixture, in sufficient quantity to make a thick batter, which must be beaten till perfectly smooth and free from lumps. Put it into a porcelain stew-pan, and give it one boil up, stirring it nearly all the time. Then put it into a freezer, and freeze it in the usual manner. Afterwards transfer it to a pyramid mould, and freeze it a second time for half an hour or more. When quite frozen, take it out of the mould upon a glass or china dish.
Instead of lemon or orange, you may flavour it with a vanilla bean boiled slowly in half a pint of cream, and then strained out, before you mix it with the other cream.
From a quart of cream take half a pint, and boil in it slowly two ounces of bitter almonds, or peach kernels, previously blanched and broken up. Then, when it is highly flavoured with the almonds, strain the half pint and mix it with the remaining pint and a half of cream, to which add, by degrees, six eggs previously beaten till very light, and half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Crumble a sufficient quantity of the best almond maccaroons to make a thick batter when stirred gradually into the mixture of cream, sugar, and eggs, which must be beaten till perfectly smooth. Give it a boil, stirring it well while boiling. Then put it into a freezer, and freeze it as usual. Afterward transfer it to a pyramid mould and freeze it again. It will be found very fine if properly made.
To four pounds of the best double refined loaf-sugar, allow a quart of water, and four dozen large ripe deep-coloured oranges. Having rolled the oranges on the table under your hand to increase the quantity of juice, wash and wipe them dry. Take pieces of the sugar and rub them on half the oranges till you have taken off on the sugar their yellow rind or zest. Then put that sugar with the remainder into a porcelain kettle, and pour on it a quart of water into which has been beaten the white of one egg. When the sugar is quite melted, set the kettle on the fire, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise, and the orange-zest is entirely dissolved. Then stir in gradually the juice of the oranges, and when all is in, take it directly off the fire, lest the flavour of the juice should be weakened by boiling. Let it cool, stirring it well. Lastly, put it into a freezer surrounded by pounded ice and salt, and stir it hard for the first ten minutes. Take off the lid and repeat the stirring every five minutes till the freezing is accomplished. Turn it out into a glass bowl; having first washed off the ice and salt from the outside of the freezer, lest some of it should chance to get into the inside. Serve it on saucers.
After it has congealed in the freezer, you may transfer it to a pyramid or pine-apple mould, and freeze it a second time, which will require half an hour or more. Of course, while in the mould, it must remain undisturbed. Before you turn it out, hold round the outside of the mould a cloth dipped in cold water.
May be made in the above manner, only that you must allow an additional pound of sugar, and use the zest or yellow rind of all the lemons.
To each pound of loaf-sugar allow half a pint of water, and three quarts of ripe strawberries. Having broken up the sugar, put it into a preserving-kettle, and pour on it the water in the above proportion. To make the syrup very clear, you may allow to each pint of water half the white of an egg beaten into the water. When the sugar has melted, and been well stirred in the water, put the kettle over the fire, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Have ready the strawberry juice, having put the strawberries into a linen bag, and squeezed the liquid into a deep pan. As soon as you take the kettle of syrup from the fire, stir into it the strawberry juice. Then put it into a freezer, surrounded with ice broken small, and mixed with salt; twirl it round by the handles for ten minutes, and then let it freeze, frequently stirring it hard. When done, turn it out into a glass bowl, and serve it on saucers. Or you may give it a second freezing in a pyramid mould.
Is made exactly as above. You may heighten the colour of these ices by adding to the juice a little cochineal, which it is very convenient to keep in the house ready prepared. To do this, mix together an ounce of cochineal (pounded to a fine powder), a quarter of an ounce of powdered alum, and a quarter of an ounce of cream of tartar, adding a salt-spoonful of pearl-ash, and three ounces of powdered loaf-sugar. Boil them all together for ten minutes or more. Then pat the mixture into a clean new bottle, cork it tightly, and stir a little of it into any liquid you wish to colour of a fine red. With this you may give a red colour to calves' feet jelly, or blancmange, or to icing for cakes.
Is made as above, first mashing the grapes with a wooden beetle, before you put them into the bag for squeezing the juice. Currants for water ice must also be mashed before squeezing in the bag.
Having pared and sliced a sufficient number of very ripe pine-apples, cut the slices into small bits, put them into a deep dish or a tureen, sprinkle among them powdered loaf-sugar, cover them and let them set several hours in a cool place. Then have ready a syrup made of loaf-sugar, dissolved in a little water (allowing to every two pounds of sugar a pint of water beaten with half the white of an egg), and boiled and skimmed till quite clear. Get as much pine-apple juice as you can, by squeezing through a sieve the bits of pine-apple (after they have stood some hours in the tureen), measure it, and to each pint of the boiled syrup allow a pint of juice. Mix them together while the syrup is warm from the fire. Then put it into a freezer, and proceed in the usual manner.
Take soft, ripe, juicy, freestone peaches, pare them, stone them, and cut them in pieces. Put the pieces into a linen bag and squeeze the juice into a deep pan. Crack the stones, scald and blanch the kernels, break them in half, and, having made a syrup as in the above receipts, allowing half a pint of water to each pound of loaf-sugar, boil the kernels in the syrup, taking them out when the syrup is done. This infusion of the kernels will add greatly to the flavour. Then measure the peach-juice, allowing a pint of it to each pint of syrup, and mix them together while the syrup is hot. Then freeze it.
For this purpose you must have a circular or drum-shaped tin mould, or a pair or more of them. The mould should be without a bottom. They can be procured at a tin-store, and are useful for other purposes. The day before you want the Charlotte russe, make a stiff plain jelly by boiling a set of calves' feet (four) in a gallon of water till the meat drops from the bone. It should boil slowly till the liquid is reduced to less than two quarts. Then, having strained it, measure into a pan three pints of the liquid, cover it, and set it away to congeal. Next morning, it should be a solid cake, from which you must carefully scrape off all the fat and sediment. Boil a vanilla bean in half a pint of milk, till the milk is very highly flavoured with the vanilla. Then strain it, and set it away to get cold. Take three pints of rich cream, put it into a shallow pan, set it on ice, and beat it to a stiff froth with rods or a whisk; or churn it to a foam with a little tin churn. Next, add to the cream the vanilla milk, and beat both together. Melt the jelly in a pan over the fire. Beat very light the yolks of six eggs, and then stir gradually into the beaten egg half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Next, add, by degrees, the melted jelly to the egg and sugar, stirring very hard. Keep the vessel sitting on ice, and continue stirring till the mixture is firm enough to retain the mark of the spoon. Then stir in the cream as quickly as possible. Have ready the tin mould, lined with the long thin cakes called lady-fingers, or finger biscuits, brushed over with beaten white of egg. They must be laid closely across each other on the bottom of a dish, and be so arranged as to stand up in a circle round the sides of the mould, each wrapping a little over the other. Then carefully put in the mixture, and cover the top with lady-fingers laid closely across. After the whole is nicely arranged, set it on ice till wanted. When you wish to turn out the Charlotte russe, (which must be done with great care,) wrap round the outside of the mould a coarse towel dipped in cold water, and lift it off from the charlotte.
Instead of lady-fingers you may use sponge-cake for the shape or form. Cut two circular slices from a large sponge-cake, one for the bottom, and one for the top of the charlotte, and for the wall or sides arrange tall, square slices of the cake, all of them standing up so as to wrap a little over each other. All the cake must be glazed with beaten white of egg.
A still easier way is to make an almond sponge-cake, and bake it in a drum-shaped mould or pan, or an oval one with straight or upright sides. When cold, cut off the top in one thin slice, and carefully cut out or hollow the middle, so as to make a space to contain the mixture of the charlotte, leaving bottom and sides standing. They must be left thin. Then, when the mixture is ready and quite cold, fill up the cake with it. It must be set on a china or glass dish, and kept on ice till wanted. It will require no turning out; and there is no risk of its breaking. The pieces that come out of the almond-cake when it is hollowed to receive the charlotte mixture, can be used for some other purpose, for instance, to mix with other cakes in a basket, or to dissolve at the bottom of a trifle.
For this purpose the coffee should be cold drawn. Take a large half pint of fresh ground coffee, which should be of the best quality, and roasted that day. Put it into a grecque or French coffee pot, such as are made with strainers inside, and have a second cover below the lid. Lay the coffee on the upper strainer, pour on it half a pint of cold water, and press it down with the inner cover. Put on the outer or top-lid of the coffee-pot, and stop the mouth of the spout with a roll or wad of soft white paper, or with a closely-fitting cork, to prevent any of the aroma escaping.
When the coffee liquid has all filtered down through both the upper and lower strainers, pour it off into a bowl, and return it to the upper strainer to filter down a second time. It will then be beautifully clear, and very strong, notwithstanding that it has been made with cold water.
Have ready a custard-mixture made of eight well-beaten eggs, stirred gradually into a pint of cold rich milk or cream; and three or four table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf-sugar. Stir the cold liquid coffee gradually into it. Put it into cups. Set them in an iron oven or bake-pan with boiling water round them, reaching rather more than half-way up the sides of the cups. Bake them ten minutes or more. Then set them on ice, and send them to table quite cold.
Take limes, or small lemons that are quite ripe, and all about the same size. With a sharp penknife scoop a hole at the stalk end of each, and loosen the pulp all around the inside, taking care not to break or cut through the rind. In doing this, hold the lime over a bowl, and having extracted all the pulp and juice, (saving them in the bowl,) boil the empty limes half an hour or more in alum-water, till the rinds look clear and nearly transparent. Then drain them, and lay them for several hours in cold water, changing the water nearly every hour. At night, having changed the water once more, let the limes remain in it till next day, by which time all taste of the alum should be removed; but if it is not, give them a boil in some weak ginger tea. If you wish them very green, line the sides and bottom of a preserving-kettle with fresh vine-leaves, placed very thickly, put in the limes, and pour on as much clear cold water as will cover them, (spring or pump-water is best,) and fill up with a very thick layer of vine-leaves. Boil them slowly an hour or more. If they are not sufficiently green, repeat the process with fresh vine-leaves and fresh water. They must boil till a twig can pierce them.
After the limes have been greened, give the kettle a complete washing; or take another and proceed to make the syrup. Having weighed the limes, allow to every pound of them a pound of the best double refined loaf-sugar, and half a pint of very clear water. Break up the sugar and put it into the kettle. Then pour on to it the water, which must previously be mixed with some beaten white of egg, allowing the white of one egg to three pounds of sugar. Let the sugar dissolve in the water before you set it over the fire, stirring it well. Boil and skim the sugar, and when the scum ceases to rise, put in the limes, adding the juice that was saved from them, and which must first be strained from the pulp, seeds, &c. Boil the limes in the syrup till they are very tender and transparent. Then take them out carefully, and spread them on flat dishes. Put the syrup into a tureen, and leave it uncovered for two days.
In the mean time prepare a jelly for filling the limes. Get several dozen of fine ripe lemons. Roll them under your hand on the table, to increase the juice; cut them in half, and squeeze them through a strainer into a pitcher. To each pint of the juice allow a pound and a quarter of the best double refined loaf-sugar. Put the sugar, mixed with the lemon-juice, into a preserving-kettle, and when they are melted set it over the fire, and boil and skim it till it becomes a thick, firm jelly, which it should in twenty minutes. Try if it will congeal by taking out a little in a spoon, and placing it in the open air. If it congeals immediately, it is sufficiently done. If boiled too long it will liquefy, and will not congeal again without the assistance of isinglass. When the jelly is done, put it at once into a large bowl, and leave it uncovered.
The lemon-jelly, the syrup and the limes, being thoroughly done, and all grown cold, finish by filling the limes with the jelly; putting them, with the open part downwards, into wide-mouthed glass jars, and gently pouring on them the syrup. Cover the jars closely, and paste strong paper over the covers. Or seal the corks.
Very small, thin-skinned, ripe oranges, preserved in this manner, and filled with orange-jelly, are delicious.
If, instead of having it liquid, you wish the syrup to crystallize or candy round the fruit, put no water to the sugar, but boil it slowly a long time, with the juice only, clarified by beaten white of egg mixed with the sugar in the proportion of one white to three pounds.
Before squeezing out the juice of the lemons intended to make the jelly, it will be well to pare off very thin the yellow rind; cut it into bits, and put it into a bottle of white wine or brandy, where it will keep soft and fresh, and the infusion will make a fine flavouring for cakes, puddings, &c. The rind of lemons should never be thrown away, as it is useful for so many nice purposes. Apple-sauce and apple-pies should always be flavoured with lemon-peel.
Take the largest, ripest, and most perfect pine-apples. Pare them, and cut out whatever blemishes you may find. Weigh each pine-apple, balancing the other scale with an equal quantity of the best double refined loaf-sugar, finely powdered. Grate the pine-apples on a large dish, omitting the hard core in the centre of each. Put the grated pine-apples and the sugar into a preserving-kettle, mixing them thoroughly. Set it over a moderate fire, and boil and skim it well, at times stirring it up from the bottom. After the scum has ceased to appear, still stir, till the marmalade is done, which will generally be in half an hour after it has come to a boil; but if not clear, bright, and smooth in that time, continue to boil it longer. When done, put it into a tureen, and cover it closely, while it is growing cold. Afterwards, remove it into tumblers, covering the top of each with double white tissue-paper, cut round so as exactly to fit the inside. Lay this paper closely on the marmalade, and press it down round the edges. Then paste on covers of thick paper.
This preparation of pine-apples is far superior to the usual method of preserving it in slices. It will be found very fine for filling tart-shells, and for jelly-cake.
Squeeze through a strainer the juice of a dozen or more ripe oranges. Have ready some of the best double refined loaf-sugar, powdered as fine as possible, and sifted. Mix gradually the sugar with the juice, till it is so thick you can scarcely stir it. Put it into a porcelain skillet. Set it on hot coals, or over a moderate fire, and stir it hard with a wooden spoon for five minutes after it begins to boil. Then take it off the fire, and with a silver spoon or the point of a broad knife, drop portions of the mixture upon a flat tin pan or a pewter dish, smoothing the drops, and making them of good shape and regular size, which should be about that of a cent. When cold they will easily come off the tin. They are delicious, if properly made. Never use extract or oil of orange for them, or for any thing else. It will make them taste like turpentine, and render them uneatable. Confectioners form these drops in moulds made for the purpose.
Lemon drops may be prepared in the same manner.
The best time for making lemon syrup is early in the spring. Lemons are then plenty, and the syrup mixed with ice-water, makes a pleasant beverage for summer. It is best and cheapest to buy lemons by the box. Before using them for any purpose, each lemon should be wiped well, and then rolled hard under your hand upon a table to soften them and increase the juice. Two dozen large ripe lemons will generally yield about a quart of juice if pressed with a wooden lemon-squeezer; but it is best to have a few extra ones at hand, in case they should be required. To a quart of juice allow six pounds of the best loaf-sugar, broken up; on pieces of which rub off the yellow rind or zest of the lemons. The white part of the skin is useless and injurious. Put all the sugar into a large porcelain preserving-kettle. Beat to a stiff froth the whites of two eggs, mix it gradually with a quart of clear soft water, and then add it to the sugar. Stir the sugar while it is melting in the water, and when all is dissolved, place the kettle over the fire, and boil and skim it till perfectly clear, and the scum ceases to rise, and the particles of lemon zest are no longer visible. Meanwhile, squeeze the lemons through a strainer into a large pitcher, till you have a quart of juice. When the sugar has boiled sufficiently, and is quite clear, stir in gradually the lemon-juice, cover the kettle and let it boil ten minutes longer. When cool put it into clean, clear glass bottles, either quite new ones or some that have already contained lemon syrup. The bottles should first be rinsed with brandy. Cork them tightly and seal the corks. Orange syrup may be made in a similar manner omitting to use the grated yellow rind of the oranges, (it being too pungent for this purpose,) and substituting for it a double quantity of the juice; for instance, allowing two quarts of juice to six pounds of sugar.
Take three quarters of a pound of almonds, (of which two ounces, or more, should be the bitter sort,) and blanch and slice them. Powder three quarters of a pound of fine white sugar. Sift three quarters of a pound of flour, and slice half a pound of citron. Mix together the almond and citron, on a flat dish, and sprinkle among them flour from the dredging-box, till they are white all over. Beat six eggs as light as possible, till they are very thick and smooth. Then mix them gradually with the sugar, almond, and citron, stirring very hard. Lastly, stir in, by degrees, the sifted flour. Butter a tin pan or pans, and put in the mixture about an inch deep. Bake it; and when cool, cut it into narrow slices about an inch wide, and five inches long. To make them keep a long time, lay them on shallow tins, and give them a second baking. Put the cakes into a stone jar, and they will keep a year or more, after this double baking.
Mix gradually with two quarts of boiling water, three pounds and a half of the best brown sugar, a pint and a half of good West India molasses, and a quarter of a pound of tartaric acid. Stir it well, and when cool, strain it into a large jug or pan, then mix in a tea-spoonful (not more) of essence of sassafras. Transfer it to clean bottles, (it will fill about half a dozen,) cork it tightly, and keep it in a cool place. It will be fit for use next day. Put into a box or boxes a quarter of a pound of carbonate of soda, to use with it. To prepare a glass of sassafras mead for drinking, put a large table-spoonful of the mead into a half tumbler full of ice-water, stir into it a half tea-spoonful of the soda, and it will immediately foam up to the top.
Sassafras mead will be found a cheap, wholesome, and pleasant beverage for warm weather. The essence of sassafras, tartaric acid, and carbonate of soda, can of course all be obtained at the druggists'.
Take a large quantity of tomatas, and scald and peel them. Press them through a fine hair-sieve, and boil the pulp in either a porcelain or a bell-metal preserving-kettle, as tin or iron will blacken it. Cover the kettle closely, and keep it at a slow boil during four hours. Then measure the pulp of the tomatas, and to every two quarts allow a tea-spoonful of salt. Boil it an hour after the salt is in, stirring it frequently. Have ready, in equal proportions, a mixture of powdered ginger, nutmeg, mace, and cloves; and to every two quarts of the liquid, allow a large tea-spoonful of these mixed spices, adding a small tea-spoonful of cayenne. Stir in this seasoning, and then boil the catchup half an hour longer. Strain it carefully into a large pitcher, avoiding the grounds or sediment of the spices, and then (while hot) pour it through a flannel into clean bottles. Cork them tightly, and seal the corks. Keep it in a dry, cool place. It will be of a fine scarlet colour.
Slice a gallon of the largest green tomatas, and salt them over night to your taste. In the morning mix together a table-spoonful of ground black pepper; one of mace; one of cloves; four pods of red pepper, chopped fine; and half a pint of grated horse-radish. Mix them all thoroughly. Have ready a large, wide-mouthed stone jar; put into it first a layer of the seasoning, then a layer of tomatas, then another of seasoning, then another of tomatas, then another of seasoning, another of tomatas; and so on alternately till the jar is filled within two inches of the top, finishing with a layer of seasoning. Then fill up to the top with cold cider vinegar; adding at the last a table-spoonful of sweet oil. Cover the jar closely.
This will be found a very nice pickle, and is easily made, as it requires no cooking. After the tomatas are all gone, the liquid remaining in the jar may be used as catchup.
Fill three quarters of a jar with small, round, button tomatas when quite ripe. Put them in whole, and then pour over them sufficient cold vinegar (highly flavoured with mace, cloves, and whole black pepper) to raise them to the top. Add a table-spoonful of sweet oil, and cover the jar closely.
Always save the gravy of roast meat. Having skimmed off the fat, and poured the gravy through a strainer into a jar, cover it closely, and set it away in a refrigerator, or some very cold place, till next day. When cold meat is hashed or otherwise recooked, it is best to do it in its own gravy, and without the addition of water.
Take some cold roast veal, and cut it into small mouthfuls. Put it into a skillet or stew-pan, without a drop of water. Add to it the veal gravy that was left the preceding day, and a small lump of fresh butter. Cover the skillet, and let the hash stew over the fire for half an hour. Then put to it a large table-spoonful of tomata catchup; or more, according to the quantity of meat. One large table-spoonful of catchup will suffice for as much hash as will fill a soup-plate. After the catchup is in, cover the hash, and let it stew half an hour longer. This is the very best way of dressing cold veal for breakfast. Observe that there must be no water about it. Cold roast beef, mutton, or pork, may be hashed in this manner; but hashed veal is best. You may also hash cold poultry, or rabbits, by cutting them in small bits, and stewing them in gravy, adding mushroom catchup instead of tomata.
Take a large, fine, cold fowl, and having removed the skin and fat, cut the flesh from the bones in very small shreds, not more than an inch long. The dressing should not be made till immediately before it goes to table. Have ready half a dozen or more hard-boiled eggs. Cut up the yolks upon a plate, and with the back of a wooden spoon mash them to a paste, adding a small salt-spoonful of salt, rather more of cayenne pepper, and a large tea-spoonful of made mustard. Mix them well together; then add two large table-spoonfuls of salad oil, and one of the best cider vinegar. All these ingredients for the dressing, must be mixed to a fine, smooth, stiff, yellow paste. Lay the shred chicken in a nice even heap, upon the middle of a flat dish, smoothing it, and making it circular or oval with the back of a spoon, and flattening the top. Then cover it thickly and smoothly with the dressing, or paste of seasoned yolk of egg, &c. Have ready a large head of lettuce that has been picked, and washed in cold water; and, cutting up the best parts of it very small, mix the lettuce with a portion of the hard-boiled white of egg minced fine. Lay the chopped lettuce all round the heap of shred chicken, &c. Then ornament the surface with very small bits of boiled red beets, and green pickled cucumbers, cut into slips and dots, and arranged in a pretty pattern upon the yellow ground of the coating that covers the chicken. After taking on your plate a portion of each part of the salad, mix all together before eating it.
Do not use for this, or any other purpose, the violently and disagreeable sharp vinegar that is improperly sold in many of the grocery stores, and is made entirely of chemical acids. Some of these employed for making vinegar, are so corrosive as to be absolutely poisonous. This vinegar can always be known by its very clear transparency, and its excessive pungency, overpowering entirely the taste of every thing with which it is mixed; and also by its entire destitution of the least flavour resembling wine or cider, though it is often sold as "the best white vinegar." You can always have good wholesome vinegar by setting in the sun with the cork loosened, a vessel of cider till it becomes vinegar. In buying a keg of vinegar, it is best to get it of a farmer that makes cider.